TWO years notice will be given to end a council's involvement with a leisure centre.

Dorset Council cabinet members unanimously backed the move in relation to Queen Elizabeth's Leisure Centre in Wimborne despite widespread opposition and a plea from ward councillor Shane Bartlett.

He asked the meeting for a hold on the decision while a further look at the options were undertaken for the Blandford Road facility.

But cabinet portfolio holder Cllr Laura Miller said with a break clause in the agreement it was a now or never moment.

She defended the plans to withdraw saying it was unfair that a third of the council’s entire leisure budget went towards supporting the centre in a building it does not own.

“It’s just inequitable and we can’t continue,” she said.

The council will stump up  the money to upgrade the all-weather sports pitch before it pulls out and will offer support and advice to the school which is likely to take over the management unless a community group can be established to do the job.

Cllr Miller said the council could no longer afford the £550,000 a year funding when other centres got nothing, or much less, even when the properties were owned by the authority.

Dorchester councillor Les Fry, independent, said while almost everything he had heard from the Wimborne community had been negative, the chance to decide its own destiny could be a golden opportunity for the centre, with the potential to go from strength to strength.

Part of the council exit deal includes £150,000 towards a new all-weather sports pitch and spending of up to £731,000 on bringing the centre’s maintenance and repairs up to date. It has also facilitated funding, through a Government grant, for solar panels and low energy lighting to reduce ongoing costs.

The council has claimed that there are several other centres within a 20-minute drive of QE in addition to many parks and play areas – although Cllr Bartlett said the cost of travelling for many would make leisure prohibitive and, encouraging people to drive was also against the council’s climate change objectives.

Wimborne town mayor Cllr Kelly Webb has written to Dorset Council to ask a series of questions about the centre’s future, commenting: “It is disappointing that although East Dorset District Council worked with a local school for the benefit of the wider community by supporting a shared facility, Dorset Council appears to only be considering the financial savings involved in changing the arrangement.”